Thursday, August 30, 2012

A Clinton County
man suffered a gunshot wound Monday night to his right leg when the
handgun he was using to target practice allegedly discharged as he was
replacing it in its holster.

The injured man, Terry C. Stephens,
53, told the Clinton County Sheriff’s
Office he had been target practicing at a private shooting range when he accidentally
shot himself in the leg.

“He stated that
he had accidentally shot himself in the right leg while attempting to
re-holster his .38 caliber handgun,” said Deputy Timothy Smith of the
sheriff’s office.

“The
EMS (emergency medical squad) on scene stated that the bullet did not
go through his leg but had tore a significant chunk of flesh from his
leg,” Smith said.

Stephens has a concealed carry permit and also
had permission to target shoot on Beam’s property, according to the
sheriff’s office which is continuing the investigation as an accidental
gunshot.

You see, this is the way you do it. Admit your mistake, call it what it is even when the news reporters try to soft-sell it as a handgun having "allegedly discharged" all by itself.

When you do that and don't lie to the police, you don't even get a slap on the wrist. Of course, you should lose (originally "love") your right to own and use guns, but by playing your cards right, you can keep your precious guns and your precious CCW permit and go on your merry way.

What's your opinion? Is this acceptable? Is there really any way something like this can be excused?

Mike, you should go back and read the article again... It says "allegedly discharged as he was replacing it in its holster" They're saying that it "claimed" to have happened at point in time he was trying to re-holster his gun so they say "allegedly" because they do not have proof otherwise...

You're sounding more and more like main stream media mixing words to benefit your position there Mikey.

P.S. I've been seeing multiple comments by others that comments are being deleted... If you're censoring people because their views aren't in-line with yours, that's not right... Censorship is unethical. I'm going to start saving every one of my comments and the link to the article I posted it on and I'll go back from time to time to make sure that all of my comments are still there.

Jolly Roger, several of my comments have disappeared within a few moments of posting. If it's a web snafu, I'd understand, but if there's been a change in comment policy or if some of the former co-bloggers here still have editing privileges, I'd like to know.

Mike, I would like to know; Have ever shot a gun? Have you ever been out target practising to specifically practice your gun pulls and holstering?

From your comments on these accidents, it's starting to sound like you have no idea what you're talking about but I want to give you the benefit of the doubt so that is why I am asking.

When I first started practising my gun pulls and holstering techniques I spent weeks upon weeks practising but I had the forethought to put blanks in my gun in the beginning. I practised with several different types of guns to figure out what type of gun was best suited for my needs. One time right after I switched from a double action gun to a single action with a new style of holster, I had a issue where the side of the holster closed some after the gun was pulled. When I tried to holster the gun again the tip caught on the side that partially closed and twisted the gun so it was pointing right at my leg and my thumb came really close to the trigger. The gun did not discharge but it was a scary situation and thankfully I had been practising with blanks just in case there had been an accidental discharge.

The only way to become competent is to practise, practise and practise. I haven't had another incident like that one I described above because I have learned what holsters work for me and what holsters do not.

You act as if people are not allowed to make a mistake at all, ever. People make mistakes all the time and they are forgiven because it was an accident. People accidentally run red lights and some are given a warning while others are given an appropriate punishment because no one else was hurt for running a red light. Sometimes red light runners cause horrible accidents and they are given much harsher punishments but they aren't punished as if it were an intentional action. You cannot set a blanketed punishment for all crimes, there has to be allowances for the situation and conditions.

Greg, you're right about the fact that I've got a limited knowledge of gun law, especially compared to you. This is explained by several simple facts, but "knows nothing about them," is a bit strong. Don't you think?

Mikeb, given the fact that you're trying to take away my rights, I'm being exceptionally gentle with you. You want to see laws enacted that would change something important to me, but you don't know much, if anything, about the subject. You're the guy in a dark room with a box of matches.